PREPOSITIONS..

305. The word preposition implies place before: hence it would seem that a preposition is always before its object. It may be so in the majority of cases, but in a considerable proportion of instances the preposition is after its object.

This occurs in such cases as the following:—
(1) After a relative pronoun, a very common occurrence; thus,—

The most dismal Christmas fun which these eyes ever looked on.—Thackeray.

An ancient nation which they know nothing of.—Emerson.

A foe, whom a champion has fought with to-day.—Scott.

Some little toys that girls are fond of.—Swift.

"It's the man that I spoke to you about" said Mr. Pickwick.—Dickens.

(2) After an interrogative adverb, adjective, or pronoun, also frequently found:—

What God doth the wizard pray to?—Hawthorne.

What is the little one thinking about?—J. G. Holland.

Where the Devil did it come from, I wonder?—Dickens.

(3) With an infinitive, in such expressions as these:—

A proper quarrel for a Crusader to do battle in.—Scott.

"You know, General, it was nothing to joke about."—Cable

Had no harsh treatment to reproach herself with.—Boyesen

A loss of vitality scarcely to be accounted for.—Holmes.

Places for horses to be hitched to.—Id.

(4) After a noun,—the case in which the preposition is expected to be, and regularly is, before its object; as,—
And unseen mermaids' pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
—Beddoes.
Forever panting and forever young,
All breathing human passion far above.
—Keats.

306. Since the object of a preposition is most often a noun, the statement is made that the preposition usually precedes its object; as in the following sentence, "Roused by the shock, he started from his trance."

Here the words by and from are connectives; but they do more than connect. By shows the relation in thought between roused and shock, expressing means or agency; from shows the relation in thought between started and trance, and expresses separation. Both introduce phrases.
Definition.

307. A preposition is a word joined to a noun or its equivalent to make up a qualifying or an adverbial phrase, and to show the relation between its object and the word modified.
Objects, nouns and the following.

308. Besides nouns, prepositions may have as objects—

(1) Pronouns: "Upon them with the lance;" "With whom I traverse earth."

(2) Adjectives: "On high the winds lift up their voices."

(3) Adverbs: "If I live wholly from within;" "Had it not been for the sea from aft."

(4) Phrases: "Everything came to her from on high;" "From of old they had been zealous worshipers."

(5) Infinitives: "The queen now scarce spoke to him save to convey some necessary command for her service."

(6) Gerunds: "They shrink from inflicting what they threaten;" "He is not content with shining on great occasions."

(7) Clauses:
"Each soldier eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn."
Object usually objective case, if noun or pronoun.

309. The object of a preposition, if a noun or pronoun, is usually in the objective case. In pronouns, this is shown by the form of the word, as in Sec. 308 (1).
Often possessive.

In the double-possessive idiom, however, the object is in the possessive case after of; for example,—

There was also a book of Defoe's,... and another of Mather's.—Franklin.

See also numerous examples in Secs. 68 and 87.
Sometimes nominative.

And the prepositions but and save are found with the nominative form of the pronoun following; as,—
Nobody knows but my mate and I
Where our nest and our nestlings lie.
—BRYANT.
USES OF PREPOSITIONS.
Inseparable.

310. Prepositions are used in three ways:—

(1) Compounded with verbs, adverbs, or conjunctions; as, for example, with verbs, withdraw, understand, overlook, overtake, overflow, undergo, outstay, outnumber, overrun, overgrow, etc.; with adverbs, thereat, therein, therefrom, thereby, therewith, etc.; with conjunctions, whereat, wherein, whereon, wherethrough, whereupon, etc.
Separable.

(2) Following a verb, and being really a part of the verb. This use needs to be watched closely, to see whether the preposition belongs to the verb or has a separate prepositional function. For example, in the sentences, (a) "He broke a pane from the window," (b) "He broke into the bank," in (a), the verb broke is a predicate, modified by the phrase introduced by from; in (b), the predicate is not broke, modified by into the bank, but broke into—the object, bank.

Study carefully the following prepositions with verbs:—

Considering the space they took up.—Swift.

I loved, laughed at, and pitied him.—Goldsmith.

The sun breaks through the darkest clouds.—Shakespeare.

They will root up the whole ground.—Swift.

A friend prevailed upon one of the interpreters.—Addison

My uncle approved of it.—Franklin.

The robber who broke into them.—Landor.

This period is not obscurely hinted at.—Lamb.

The judge winked at the iniquity of the decision.—Id.

The pupils' voices, conning over their lessons.—Irving.

To help out his maintenance.—Id.

With such pomp is Merry Christmas ushered in.—Longfellow.
Ordinary use as connective, relation words.

(3) As relation words, introducing phrases,—the most common use, in which the words have their own proper function.
Usefulness of prepositions.

311. Prepositions are the subtlest and most useful words in the language for compressing a clear meaning into few words. Each preposition has its proper and general meaning, which, by frequent and exacting use, has expanded and divided into a variety of meanings more or less close to the original one.

Take, for example, the word over. It expresses place, with motion, as, "The bird flew over the house;" or rest, as, "Silence broods over the earth." It may also convey the meaning of about, concerning; as, "They quarreled over the booty." Or it may express time: "Stay over night."

The language is made richer and more flexible by there being several meanings to each of many prepositions, as well as by some of them having the same meaning as others.
CLASSES OF PREPOSITIONS.

312. It would be useless to attempt to classify all the prepositions, since they are so various in meaning.

The largest groups are those of place, time, and exclusion.
PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE.

313. The following are the most common to indicate place:—

(1) PLACE WHERE: abaft, about, above, across, amid (amidst), among (amongst), at, athwart, below, beneath, beside, between (betwixt), beyond, in, on, over, under (underneath), upon, round or around, without.

(2) PLACE WHITHER: into, unto, up, through, throughout, to, towards.

(3) PLACE WHENCE: down, from (away from, down from, from out, etc.), off, out of.

Abaft is exclusively a sea term, meaning back of.

Among (or amongst) and between (or betwixt) have a difference in meaning, and usually a difference in use. Among originally meant in the crowd (on gemong), referring to several objects; between and betwixt were originally made up of the preposition be (meaning by) and twēon or twēonum (modern twain), by two, and be with twīh (or twuh), having the same meaning, by two objects.

As to modern use, see "Syntax" (Sec. 459).
PREPOSITIONS OF TIME.

314. They are after, during, pending, till or until; also many of the prepositions of place express time when put before words indicating time, such as at, between, by, about, on, within, etc.

These are all familiar, and need no special remark.
EXCLUSION OR SEPARATION.

315. The chief ones are besides, but, except, save, without. The participle excepting is also used as a preposition.
MISCELLANEOUS PREPOSITIONS.

316. Against implies opposition, sometimes place where. In colloquial English it is sometimes used to express time, now and then also in literary English; for example,—

She contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for me against night.—Swift

About, and the participial prepositions concerning, respecting, regarding, mean with reference to.
Phrase prepositions.

317. Many phrases are used as single prepositions: by means of, by virtue of, by help of, by dint of, by force of; out of, on account of, by way of, for the sake of; in consideration of, in spite of, in defiance of, instead of, in view of, in place of; with respect to, with regard to, according to, agreeably to; and some others.

318. Besides all these, there are some prepositions that have so many meanings that they require separate and careful treatment: on (upon), at, by, for, from, of, to, with.

No attempt will be made to give all the meanings that each one in this list has: the purpose is to stimulate observation, and to show how useful prepositions really are.
At.

319. The general meaning of at is near, close to, after a verb or expression implying position; and towards after a verb or expression indicating motion. It defines position approximately, while in is exact, meaning within.

Its principal uses are as follows:—

(1) Place where.

They who heard it listened with a curling horror at the heart.—J. F. Cooper.

There had been a strike at the neighboring manufacturing village, and there was to be a public meeting, at which he was besought to be present.—T. W. Higginson.

(2) Time, more exact, meaning the point of time at which.

He wished to attack at daybreak.—Parkman.

They buried him darkly, at dead of night.—Wolfe

(3) Direction.

The mother stood looking wildly down at the unseemly object.—Cooper.

You are next invited...to grasp at the opportunity, and take for your subject, "Health."—Higginson.

Here belong such expressions as laugh at, look at, wink at, gaze at, stare at, peep at, scowl at, sneer at, frown at, etc.

We laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years.—Johnson.

"You never mean to say," pursued Dot, sitting on the floor and shaking her head at him.—Dickens.

(4) Source or cause, meaning because of, by reason of.

I felt my heart chill at the dismal sound.—T. W. Knox.

Delighted at this outburst against the Spaniards.—Parkman.

(5) Then the idiomatic phrases at last, at length, at any rate, at the best, at the worst, at least, at most, at first, at once, at all, at one, at naught, at random, etc.; and phrases signifying state or condition of being, as, at work, at play, at peace, at war, at rest, etc.

Exercise.—Find sentences with three different uses of at.
By.

320. Like at, by means near or close to, but has several other meanings more or less connected with this,—

(1) The general meaning of place.

Richard was standing by the window.—Aldrich.

Provided always the coach had not shed a wheel by the roadside.—Id.

(2) Time.

But by this time the bell of Old Alloway began tolling.—B. Taylor

The angel came by night.—R. H. Stoddard.

(3) Agency or means.

Menippus knew which were the kings by their howling louder.—M. D. Conway.

At St. Helena, the first port made by the ship, he stopped. —Parton.

(4) Measure of excess, expressing the degree of difference.

At that time [the earth] was richer, by many a million of acres.—De Quincey.

He was taller by almost the breadth of my nail.—Swift.

(5) It is also used in oaths and adjurations.

By my faith, that is a very plump hand for a man of eighty-four!—Parton.

They implore us by the long trials of struggling humanity; by the blessed memory of the departed; by the wrecks of time; by the ruins of nations.—Everett.

Exercise.—Find sentences with three different meanings of by.
For.

321. The chief meanings of for are as follows:—

(1) Motion towards a place, or a tendency or action toward the attainment of any object.

Pioneers who were opening the way for the march of the nation.—Cooper.

She saw the boat headed for her.—Warner.

(2) In favor of, for the benefit of, in behalf of, a person or thing.

He and they were for immediate attack.—Parkman

The people were then against us; they are now for us.—W. L. Garrison.

(3) Duration of time, or extent of space.

For a long time the disreputable element outshone the virtuous.—H. H. Bancroft.

He could overlook all the country for many a mile of rich woodland.—Irving.

(4) Substitution or exchange.

There are gains for all our losses.—Stoddard.

Thus did the Spaniards make bloody atonement for the butchery of Fort Caroline.—Parkman.

(5) Reference, meaning with regard to, as to, respecting, etc.

For the rest, the Colonna motto would fit you best.—Emerson.

For him, poor fellow, he repented of his folly.—E. E. Hale

This is very common with as—as for me, etc.

(6) Like as, meaning in the character of, as being, etc.

"Nay, if your worship can accomplish that," answered Master Brackett, "I shall own you for a man of skill indeed!" —Hawthorne.

Wavering whether he should put his son to death for an unnatural monster.—Lamb.

(7) Concession, meaning although, considering that etc.

"For a fool," said the Lady of Lochleven, "thou hast counseled wisely."—Scott

By my faith, that is a very plump hand for a man of eighty-four!—Parton.

(8) Meaning notwithstanding, or in spite of.

But the Colonel, for all his title, had a forest of poor relations.—Holmes.
Still, for all slips of hers,
One of Eve's family.
—Hood.

(9) Motive, cause, reason, incitement to action.

The twilight being...hardly more wholesome for its glittering mists of midge companies.—Ruskin.

An Arab woman, but a few sunsets since, ate her child, for famine.—Id.

Here Satouriona forgot his dignity, and leaped for joy.—Parkman.

(10) For with its object preceding the infinitive, and having the same meaning as a noun clause, as shown by this sentence:—

It is by no means necessary that he should devote his whole school existence to physical science; nay, more, it is not necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to such studies.—Huxley.

Exercise.—Find sentences with five meanings of for.
From.

322. The general idea in from is separation or source. It may be with regard to—

(1) Place.

Like boys escaped from school.—H. H. Bancroft

Thus they drifted from snow-clad ranges to burning plain.—Id.

(2) Origin.

Coming from a race of day-dreamers, Ayrault had inherited the faculty of dreaming also by night.—Higginson.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony
This universal frame began.
—Dryden.

(3) Time.

A distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become from the night of that fearful dream—Hawthorne.

(4) Motive, cause, or reason.

It was from no fault of Nolan's.—Hale.

The young cavaliers, from a desire of seeming valiant, ceased to be merciful.—Bancroft.

Exercise.—Find sentences with three meanings of from.
Of.

323. The original meaning of of was separation or source, like from. The various uses are shown in the following examples:—
I. The From Relation.

(1) Origin or source.

The king holds his authority of the people.—Milton.

Thomas à Becket was born of reputable parents in the city of London.—Hume.

(2) Separation: (a) After certain verbs, such as ease, demand, rob, divest, free, clear, purge, disarm, deprive, relieve, cure, rid, beg, ask, etc.

Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, and grass.—Parkman.

Asked no odds of, acquitted them of, etc.—Aldrich.

(b) After some adjectives,—clear of, free of, wide of, bare of, etc.; especially adjectives and adverbs of direction, as north of, south of, etc.

The hills were bare of trees.—Bayard Taylor.

Back of that tree, he had raised a little Gothic chapel. —Gavarre.

(c) After nouns expressing lack, deprivation, etc.

A singular want of all human relation.—Higginson.

(d) With words expressing distance.

Until he had come within a staff's length of the old dame. —Hawthorne

Within a few yards of the young man's hiding place.—Id.

(3) With expressions of material, especially out of.

White shirt with diamond studs, or breastpin of native gold.—Bancroft.

Sandals, bound with thongs of boar's hide.—Scott

Who formed, out of the most unpromising materials, the finest army that Europe had yet seen.—Macaulay

(4) Expressing cause, reason, motive.

The author died of a fit of apoplexy.—Boswell.

More than one altar was richer of his vows.—Lew Wallace.

"Good for him!" cried Nolan. "I am glad of that."—E. E. Hale.

(5) Expressing agency.

You cannot make a boy know, of his own knowledge, that Cromwell once ruled England.—Huxley.

He is away of his own free will.—Dickens

II. Other Relations expressed by Of.

(6) Partitive, expressing a part of a number or quantity.

Of the Forty, there were only twenty-one members present. —Parton.

He washed out some of the dirt, separating thereby as much of the dust as a ten-cent piece would hold.—Bancroft.
See also Sec. 309.

(7) Possessive, standing, with its object, for the possessive, or being used with the possessive case to form the double possessive.

Not even woman's love, and the dignity of a queen, could give shelter from his contumely.—W. E. Channing.

And the mighty secret of the Sierra stood revealed.—Bancroft.

(8) Appositional, which may be in the case of—

(a) Nouns.

Such a book as that of Job.—Froude.

The fair city of Mexico.—Prescott.

The nation of Lilliput.—Swift.

(b) Noun and gerund, being equivalent to an infinitive.

In the vain hope of appeasing the savages.—Cooper.

Few people take the trouble of finding out what democracy really is.—Lowell.

(c) Two nouns, when the first is descriptive of the second.

This crampfish of a Socrates has so bewitched him.—Emerson

A sorry antediluvian makeshift of a building you may think it.—Lamb.

An inexhaustible bottle of a shop.—Aldrich.

(9) Of time. Besides the phrases of old, of late, of a sudden, etc., of is used in the sense of during.

I used often to linger of a morning by the high gate.—Aldrich

I delighted to loll over the quarter railing of a calm day. —Irving.

(10) Of reference, equal to about, concerning, with regard to.

The Turk lay dreaming of the hour.—Halleck.

Boasted of his prowess as a scalp hunter and duelist.—Bancroft.

Sank into reverie of home and boyhood scenes.—Id.
Idiomatic use with verbs.

Of is also used as an appendage of certain verbs, such as admit, accept, allow, approve, disapprove, permit, without adding to their meaning. It also accompanies the verbs tire, complain, repent, consist, avail (one's self), and others.

Exercise.—Find sentences with six uses of of.
On, Upon.

324. The general meaning of on is position or direction. On and upon are interchangeable in almost all of their applications, as shown by the sentences below:—

(1) Place: (a) Where.

Cannon were heard close on the left.—Parkman.
The Earl of Huntley ranged his host
Upon their native strand.
—Mrs. Sigourney.

(b) With motion.

It was the battery at Samos firing on the boats.—Parkman.

Thou didst look down upon the naked earth.—Bryant.

(2) Time.

The demonstration of joy or sorrow on reading their letters. —Bancroft.

On Monday evening he sent forward the Indians.—Parkman.

Upon is seldom used to express time.

(3) Reference, equal to about, concerning, etc.

I think that one abstains from writing on the immortality of the soul.—Emerson.

He pronounced a very flattering opinion upon my brother's promise of excellence.—De Quincey.

(4) In adjurations.

On my life, you are eighteen, and not a day more.—Aldrich.

Upon my reputation and credit.—Shakespeare

(5) Idiomatic phrases: on fire, on board, on high, on the wing, on the alert, on a sudden, on view, on trial, etc.

Exercise.—Find sentences with three uses of on or upon.
To.

325. Some uses of to are the following:—

(1) Expressing motion: (a) To a place.

Come to the bridal chamber, Death!—Halleck.

Rip had scrambled to one of the highest peaks.—Irving.

(b) Referring to time.

Full of schemes and speculations to the last.—Parton.

Revolutions, whose influence is felt to this hour.—Parkman.

(2) Expressing result.

He usually gave his draft to an aid...to be written over,—often to the loss of vigor.—Benton

To our great delight, Ben Lomond was unshrouded.—B. Taylor

(3) Expressing comparison.
But when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears,
'Tis ten to one you find the girl in tears.
—Aldrich

They are arrant rogues: Cacus was nothing to them.—Bulwer.

Bolingbroke and the wicked Lord Littleton were saints to him.—Webster

(4) Expressing concern, interest.

To the few, it may be genuine poetry.—Bryant.

His brother had died, had ceased to be, to him.—Hale.

Little mattered to them occasional privations—Bancroft.

(5) Equivalent to according to.

Nor, to my taste, does the mere music...of your style fall far below the highest efforts of poetry.—Lang.

We cook the dish to our own appetite.—Goldsmith.

(6) With the infinitive (see Sec. 268).

Exercise.—Find sentences containing three uses of to.
With.

326. With expresses the idea of accompaniment, and hardly any of its applications vary from this general signification.

In Old English, mid meant in company with, while wið meant against: both meanings are included in the modern with.

The following meanings are expressed by with:—

(1) Personal accompaniment.

The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached the defile.—Cooper.

For many weeks I had walked with this poor friendless girl.—De Quincey.

(2) Instrumentality.

With my crossbow I shot the albatross.—Coleridge.

Either with the swingle-bar, or with the haunch of our near leader, we had struck the off-wheel of the little gig.—De Quincey.

(3) Cause, reason, motive.

He was wild with delight about Texas.—Hale.

She seemed pleased with the accident.—Howells.

(4) Estimation, opinion.

How can a writer's verses be numerous if with him, as with you, "poetry is not a pursuit, but a pleasure"?—Lang.

It seemed a supreme moment with him.—Howells.

(5) Opposition.

After battling with terrific hurricanes and typhoons on every known sea.—Aldrich.

The quarrel of the sentimentalists is not with life, but with you.—Lang.

(6) The equivalent of notwithstanding, in spite of.

With all his sensibility, he gave millions to the sword.—Channing.

Messala, with all his boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further.—Wallace

(7) Time.

He expired with these words.—Scott.

With each new mind a new secret of nature transpires.—Emerson.

Exercise.—Find sentences with four uses of with.
HOW TO PARSE PREPOSITIONS.

327. Since a preposition introduces a phrase and shows the relation between two things, it is necessary, first of all, to find the object of the preposition, and then to find what word the prepositional phrase limits. Take this sentence:—

The rule adopted on board the ships on which I have met "the man without a country" was, I think, transmitted from the beginning.—E. E. Hale.

The phrases are (1) on board the ships, (2) on which, (3) without a country, (4) from the beginning. The object of on board is ships; of on, which; of without, country; of from, beginning.

In (1), the phrase answers the question where, and has the office of an adverb in telling where the rule is adopted; hence we say, on board shows the relation between ships and the participle adopted.

In (2), on which modifies the verb have met by telling where: hence on shows the relation between which (standing for ships) and the verb have met.

In (3), without a country modifies man, telling what man, or the verb was understood: hence without shows the relation between country and man, or was. And so on.

The parsing of prepositions means merely telling between what words or word groups they show relation.
Exercises.

(a) Parse the prepositions in these paragraphs:—

1. I remember, before the dwarf left the queen, he followed us one day into those gardens. I must needs show my wit by a silly illusion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in their language as it does in ours. Whereupon, the malicious rogue, watching his opportunity when I was walking under one of them, shook it directly over my head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at my desire, because I had given the provocation.—Swift

2. Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awakened with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed. The first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock. I called out several times, but all to no purpose. I looked towards my windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and the sky. I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woeful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enabled him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.—Id.

(b) Give the exact meaning of each italicized preposition in the following sentences:—

1. The guns were cleared of their lumber.

2. They then left for a cruise up the Indian Ocean.

3. I speak these things from a love of justice.

4. To our general surprise, we met the defaulter here.

5. There was no one except a little sunbeam of a sister.

6. The great gathering in the main street was on Sundays, when, after a restful morning, though unbroken by the peal of church bells, the miners gathered from hills and ravines for miles around for marketing.

7. The troops waited in their boats by the edge of a strand.

8. His breeches were of black silk, and his hat was garnished with white and sable plumes.

9. A suppressed but still distinct murmur of approbation ran through the crowd at this generous proposition.

10. They were shriveled and colorless with the cold.

11. On every solemn occasion he was the striking figure, even to the eclipsing of the involuntary object of the ceremony.

12. On all subjects known to man, he favored the world with his opinions.

13. Our horses ran on a sandy margin of the road.

14. The hero of the poem is of a strange land and a strange parentage.

15. He locked his door from mere force of habit.

16. The lady was remarkable for energy and talent.

17. Roland was acknowledged for the successor and heir.

18. For my part, I like to see the passing, in town.

19. A half-dollar was the smallest coin that could be tendered for any service.

20. The mother sank and fell, grasping at the child.

21. The savage army was in war-paint, plumed for battle.

22. He had lived in Paris for the last fifty years.

23. The hill stretched for an immeasurable distance.

24.
The baron of Smaylho'me rose with day,
He spurred his courser on,
Without stop or stay, down the rocky way
That leads to Brotherstone.

25. With all his learning, Carteret was far from being a pedant.

26. An immense mountain covered with a shining green turf is nothing, in this respect, to one dark and gloomy.

27. Wilt thou die for very weakness?

28. The name of Free Joe strikes humorously upon the ear of memory.

29. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this engine.

30. He will raise the price, not merely by the amount of the tax.